The Vengeance of the Gods

Bakura finished burying the Millennium Necklace in the sand. Marik dipped his hair in the lake, soaking it. He threw his head back and the drops of water flew onto the sand behind him.

Marik ran his fingers through his soaking hair. “Itemri, seeing as you have a Millennium Item, shouldn’t we…bury that, too?”

Bakura fingered the gold item. “As long as it remains with me, we know the pharaoh won’t get all seven items.”

“But what if you are captured? He will have all the necessary items!”

Bakura pat the sand down in front of him. “I buried this so necklace so deep, no one will find it for a very long time. What about the other items, Ishtar?”

Marik wrapped a towel around his head to keep the water from dripping on the paper. He opened the scroll and grabbed a piece of bread from their food bag. He chewed on the bread hungrily as he read.

“We have the Necklace and the Ring. We need to find the Rod, Eye, Scales, Key, and the Puzzle.”

Bakura sighed. “Well, we have to find five more. Where’s the next one?”

Marik read, raising an eyebrow. “The Rod is in Yami’s father’s tomb. The Puzzle is in the royal palace. We’d need the entire underworld of Cairo to help us with that one.”

Bakura clenched his fists. “I’d give anything to bust into Yami’s room and repay him for his cruelty to me! I’d pin his Ra-damned skull to the bed with my dagger as I did what he did to me!”

Marik narrowed his eyes. “I’d love nothing more than to kill Anubis! He deserves a heated blade through his black heart! But, Bakura, we can’t break into the royal palace! We don’t even know where it is located!”

Bakura grinned. “We’ll have to get that one last. What about the others? Key and Scales?”

“According to this, the Key and Scales are protected and out of the pharaoh’s reach. Yami won’t be able to find them. Neither will we, for that matter.”

“So, we have the Rod and the Eye. Where is the Eye?”

Marik raised an eyebrow. “The Eye is in the Temple of Isis in Cairo.”

Bakura dipped his hair into the lake. “I know where that is. Where is the Eye?”

“It is inside a statue. The inscription reads: ‘The statue of Isis has a shining Eye with which its owner can peek into another’s mind.’

That means the Eye is on the statue of Isis.”

Bakura wrung his hair of excess water. “That means I have to bring my tools. Chisel and hammer.”

Marik finished his bread. “Wait a minute, Bakura! Think about this! If you have to chisel the Eye out of the statue of Isis, you may incur her wrath! You will be defacing the statue!”

Bakura dried his hair with a cloth. “I know, Marik, but we have to get that Eye! Yami will not care if he defaced the statue.”

Marik gripped Bakura’s arm. “That is my protector goddess, Bakura! She has looked after me and protected me from misfortune!”

Bakura brushed his fingers through his hair. “What do you think just happened at your father’s home? Marik, if we do not do this, then Yami will get to the Eye first. He will become unstoppable. He will become a plague on this Earth. It’s up to us to stop him.”

Marik nodded. “You’re right, Bakura. If Yami is dangerous now, just think of what he’ll be like if we don’t stop him.”

Bakura looked down at his left wrist and rubbed it gently. He closed his eyes, trying to push the mental images of Yami pounding into him as he was tied to the bed tightly by his wrists.

Pleading and begging for Yami to stop only made the pharaoh more violent. “YAMI! STOP! GODS! PLEASE STOP! YOU BASTARD!”

“Itemri! Bakura, open your eyes!”

He opened his eyes and felt his body shaking. Marik was holding his arms tightly. “Bakura, are you okay? Speak to me!”

“We can’t let Yami get that Eye, Ishtar. I have to do it, even if it means risking the vengeance of the gods.”

*************************

Bakura grabbed his hammer, rope, and chisel and placed some gold in his bag. When they arrived in Cairo, Bakura traded some bread and some scented oil. Bakura went to a weapons trader and he traded two flasks of scented oil for a new dagger with rubies. At the base of the blade, a golden scarab was carved.

Bakura smiled at his new weapon. The weapon clipped onto his red waistband. Bakura grinned. “How convenient!”

Marik took some gold and purchased a new sword.

They traveled to the Temple of Isis. Bakura wrapped his cloak around his head to hide himself from the soldiers posted there. He entered the temple through the large doors. Several worshippers were kneeling before the statue of Isis preoccupied with their prayers. The statue of Isis was tall. Her right eye glimmered….the Millennium Eye was set in the stone.

Bakura turned to Marik. “You create a distraction while I chisel out the eye.”

“What kind of a distraction?”

“How the hell should I know? Think of something! Use that educated brain of yours!”

Bakura approached the statue casually and slipped behind it. He removed the rope from his bag and threw it up. The rope caught on a metal that attached it to the wall. Bakura pulled himself up, suddenly hearing a piercing wail come from Marik at the front of the statue.

“I’M POSESSED! ISIS HAS ME IN HER POWER! OOOOOHH! MOST POWERFUL GODDESS!”

Bakura shook his head. “Drama queen……As long as he keeps it up, this Eye is as good as mine!”

Bakura climbed to the top of the statue and looked down. All the worshippers were crowded around Marik flailing his arms wildly.

Bakura leaned around and quietly started to chisel at the eye.

On the ground Marik gripped onto a soldier. “Isis has me in her power! I see visions! Egypt will have a great empire! The pharaoh…..will become ruler of the world!”

Bakura chiseled closer to the Eye and it fell out! Bakura caught it before it could fall.

He placed the Eye in the bag with the food. He climbed down the rope and covered his face with the cloak. Marik stopped flailing his arms when he saw Bakura’s brown eyes looking down at him.

Marik panted. “Isis has released control of me! I feel weak! Help me, stranger!”

Bakura picked Marik up and held him. The soldiers blocked their exit.

“This man was possessed by Isis! We must take him to the pharaoh!”

Bakura bit his lip. “No, he wasn’t possessed by Isis. He is my brother and he escaped from my house. A thousand apologies for the disturbance of everyone’s prayers.

“OH MY RA! ISIS’ EYE IS MISSING!” A woman cried from the back.

Marik and Bakura grinned. “Goodbye!” Marik and Bakura removed their weapons. Marik sliced through two of the guards with his two big swords. Bakura ripped through another guard’s neck with his dagger.

“WEAPONS ARE NOT ALLOWED IN THE TEMPLE OF ISIS!” a man screamed.

Bakura removed his second dagger. “Do I need to make an example out of you, too?”

The man screamed for mercy. Bakura just rolled his eyes.

Marik and Bakura ran for the door, their weapons dripping with human blood. They ran down the steps and encountered the two guards at the front. Marik battled one with his two long swords. Marik blocked with one sword and struck the guard with the other, turning him around. Marik growled and sliced through the guard’s back, cutting through the guard’s spine.

Bakura jumped as the guard tried to slice into him. Bakura jumped back and flipped over the guard, landing behind him. Bakura stabbed his dagger through the top of the man’s neck, severing the spinal cord.

Marik heard the cries of terror coming from the people and saw more guards coming their way.

“Time to split!” Bakura growled as he jumped onto his horse.

Marik jumped on his steed and they ran.

“Where’s the next item?”

“The Millennium Rod is in Yami’s father’s tomb!”

Bakura grinned. “Well, we may as well head there! I know where that is!”

Marik smiled. “You know everything, don’t you, Itemri?”

Bakura winked at him. “Yes….yes, I do!”

Marik and Bakura rode quickly from Cairo with little resistance.

*************************

Anubis and his wife stood in Aten’s room in the stable. Anubis had moved Aten out of the barracks and moved him into an empty room in the stables. Aten’s room was constructed of stone with a tiny barred window on the top. A pile of straw was his bed and a bowl filled with water was his to drink. An empty plate that was filled with table scraps sat in one corner.

Anubis paced the floor angrily keeping his eye on the object of his fury. He cracked his knuckles again, ready to deal another hefty blow.

“Where did the High Priest Seth take you, boy?! Tell me now or so help me Ra I’ll let the pharaoh pound it out of you!”

Aten cringed in the corner with his arms wrapped tightly around himself. “The High priest ordered me to tell no one, sir. I cannot disobey him or risk the anger of the gods.”

Anubis’ wife stood beside him scowling at the boy. “You ungrateful little wretch! The anger of the gods is nothing compared to the anger that my husband will show you!”

The thin, bony child shook in the corner on a small pile of straw.

“That straw is too good of a bed for you tonight, you little weakling! Tell me or you will regret it!”

Anubis’ fist crashed into the child’s upper arm again. “Where did the High Priest take you?!”

Anubis grabbed the child’s hair and threw him against the stone wall. “Tell me or I will kill you myself, Aten!”

Aten’s body started to go limp as his skull crashed against the stone. “My father….”

Anubis growled. “Your father, the traitor?”

Anubis’ wife looked at the walking skeleton in her husband’s grasp. Aten’s eyes and his stomach had sunk in and the boy was not putting up much of a fight.

“Where did the High Priest take you?”

Aten’s hand went to his chest, gripping it. “Can’t……”

“Aten, you will tell me! Where did Seth take you?”

Aten’s breath came in sharp, painful gasps. “He…took us to….the….the….”

Anubis growled. “Tell me you little brat or I will burn you alive!”

“The Oasis,” Aten whispered before losing consciousness. Anubis dropped the child on the stone floor of his home.

“The oasis in the desert? That’s where they’ve been hiding all these years! They were right under my nose!”

The woman looked down at the crumpled body on the floor, watching the pile of bones breathe.

“The element of surprise is critical. Tomorrow I will take my guards and surprise them. I hope they enjoy tonight. Tonight will be their last night of life!”

Anubis left Aten’s room, locking the heavy wooden door behind he and his wife.

“What are you going to do with the boy?” his wife asked him.

Anubis narrowed his eyes. “The boy will come with me tomorrow. He will prove his loyalty to me by killing his own father!”

“What if he refuses to kill his sire?”

Anubis narrowed his eyes. “Then we throw him to a pack of hungry dogs and let them tear him apart.”

Update: Tomorrow